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SILENCE 



BY 



S. MILLER HAGEMAN, 

Princeton, N. J. 




NEW YORK: 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 

751 BROADWAY. 

^■' O R THE AUTHOR. 
1877- 

r 






Copyright, 

1876, 

By Dodd, Mead & Comi'any. 



TO 



THE MEMORY 



MY MOTHER. 



PROEM. 



THE F-ORTY-SIXTH PSALM. A TRrE TRANSLATION'. 



God is our refuge and strength ; 
Found thoroughly a help in troubles. 
Therefore will not we fear though the 

earth should change, 
And the mountains rock like the midst of 

the seas. 
Let its floods moan and boil ; 
Let the mountains toss as its crest. 
It shall be a river the streams whereof 

shall glad the city of God : 



6 PROEM. 

It shall be the holiest of the dwellings of 

the Most High. 
God is in the midst of her. She shall not 

be rocked in waves. 
God shall help her at the turning of the 

morning. 
The nations moan. The kingdoms rock. 
He utters his voice. The earth melts. 
Be still ; and know that I am God ! 



SILENCE. 



Slowly climb the moon-fringed mountains 

like a stairway to the sky, 
Slowly each white cloud ascending, seems 

a soul, that passed on high : 
Summit billowing after summit higher and 

still higher grow, 
Till they break in awful Silence on a glit- 

terincf strand of snow. 



SILENCE. 



II. 



Silent cataract of summits, stiffened on 
thy frozen verge, 

Leaping in tumultuous silence to thy 
adamantine surge : 

Motionless, yet grandly moving, seems thy 
avalanche of stone. 

Silence ! Be thou everlasting, on thy soli- 
tary throne. 



SILENCE. 



III. 



At thy base, the swirling river chatters 
idly to the clod, 

At thy brow, thy head is lifted through 
the cloud to talk with God : 

Prophet-like, with mantle folded round thy 
dread and spectral form. 

Far below thee screams the eagle, far be- 
low thee raves the storm. 



lo SILENCE. 



IV. 



Often in my early fancy had I roved in 

search of rest, 
As the southern bird at springtime, seeks 

afar its northern nest ; 
Often in my elder yearning had I dreamed 

within me deep, 
Of that high repose that ever lies upon 

the soul like sleep. 



SILENCE. II 



Of a sweet and tender silence, that should 

soothe each aching sound, 
As the snow within the church-yard 

marbles every aching mound : 
Where the soul should find its footing in 

the spiritual rock, 
Like a lord within a castle, built above 

the billow's shock. 



12 SILENCE. 



VI. 



Not in vain yon towering mountains, that 

I marked your silver spires ; 
Not in vain yon reddening heavens, fretted 

with your cresset-fires : 
Torch of Nature, thou hast led me from 

thy summit far and free, 
To a height within my spirit that is 

grander far than thee. 



SILENCE. 13 

VII. 

Far above earth's transient echoes, far 

above earth's broken sound, 
Domes the overarching distance of the 

blue receding round : 
Softly as the world grows louder, softly 

o'er the rising din, 
Hear the great white Silence open like a 

lily on the lin. 



14 SILENCE. 



VIII. 

Greatness lies insphered in silence, littleness 

to sound is stirred, 
All the grandest things in Nature never 

have been seen or heard : 
Proving down by printless logic all the 

science of the school, 
Silence is the law of being, Sound, the 

breaking of the rule. 



SILENCE. IS 



IX. 

Wind was flourishing its trumpets, but 

th' embattled air is still, 
Streams were roaring down the gorges, 

they have thridded to a rill ; 
Thunder rumbled on the heaven, but its 

chariots have sped, 
Man was talkino- to his fellow, but the 



man grew dumb — and dead. 



t6 silence. 



X. 



Every sound shall end in silence, but the 

silence never dies, 
From the roar of swarming cities, from 

the vague of peopled skies ; 
From the wind and from the forest, from 

the cliff and from the sea, 
Like a child unto its mother, all thy 

sounds come back to thee. 



SILENCE. 17 



XI. 

So, like her who bade us open eyes she 

yet may fix in death, 
Thou hast brought us into being, thou 

shalt take away our breath ; 
Thou art Alpha and Omega, for a world 

is in thy womb, 
Thou art Alpha and Omega, for a world 

is in thy tomb. 



SILENCE. 



XII. 



Far into the Past I wandered, paused 

within its mellow clime, 
Where the Lethean years were crossing 

at the Jabbok-ford of Time ; 
Felt the boundaries of being sink around 

me into space. 
Listened, but could hear no echo, looked, 

but saw nor form nor face. 



SILENCE, 19 

XIII. 

Shadows of the ashen ages, ere this wreck- 
ing ark of earth 

Sailed upon the soundless ether, round the 
great sun's beaconing hearth ; 

When the circumfluent Silence washed the 
cold sphere with its wave, 

When man lived within his Maker, as 
Christ lived within the grave. 



SILENCE. 



XIV. 



Noiselessly, the round Creation slowly rose 

into its place, 
Like the moon at night, ascending on the 

star-sloped stairs of space: 
To its walls there came no workman, to 

its towers no touch of hand. 
Without sound, like some great palm-tree, 

spreading over sea and land. 



SILENCE. 



XV. 



Strata overleaping strata from the center 

to the crust, 
Rose, Alp-high, in molten silence, as the 

dead rise from the dust ; 
Rounding over all its angles softly as 

creation's call, 
Poising on its noiseless nothing, spins 

this intercipient ball. 



22 SILENCE. 



XVI. 

Noiselessly, the bright procession of the 
Seasons rounds in sight, 

Thronging up the deep perspective through 
the minster-aisles of night ; 

Noiselessly, the light's red chrism over- 
flows the brim of space. 

Like the wine, whose blushing colors pur- 
ple in the chaliced vase. 



SILENCE. 23 

XVII. 

As the fingers of the sunbeams lift the 

drapery of night, 
Soundlessly its forms are shaping 'neath 

the touches of the light ; 
And, with eloquence unuttered, speak they 

to the listening heart, 
As the traveler softly enters Nature's 

gallery of Art. 



24 SILENCE. 



XVIII. 

Rolls the glimmering wheel of motion 

ever without clog or jar, 
In the orb, and in the ocean, in the earth's 

incrusted star ; 
In the law of heat, whose lever turns the 

globe, without a sound ; 
In the law of gravitation, holding motion 

to its bound. 



SILENCE. 25 



XIX. 

Earth is but the frozen echo of the silent 

voice of God, 
Like a dewdrop in a crystal throbbing 

in the senseless clod : 
Silence is the heart of all things, sound, 

the fluttering of its pulse. 
Which the fever and the spasm of the 

Universe convulse. 



26 SILENCE. 



XX. 



Silence is the incarnation of an infinite 

idea, 
Kept in nature by a process that we 

neither see nor hear ; 
For the thought of God eternal cannot 

wholly be expressed, 
But a fading arc of nature rolls in light 

above the rest. 



SILENCE. 27 



XXL 



Waveless seas are softly brewing in their 

continents of stone, 
On whose offing tossing shadows of white 

sails shall yet be thrown ; 
Like the peace that passeth knowledge 

shines the rainbow in the rock, 
Perfect shapes are proudly waiting in the 

unsuspected block. 



28 SILENCE. 



XXII. 

Solemn spell of all the ages, finger on the 

lip of God, 
Like a shout of nations rising back to him 

from sea and sod ; 
The " I Am " of the Creator well opposed 

in restful life, 
To the " I Become " of creature, shuffling 

in its fitful strife. 



SILENCE. 29 



XXIII. 



Every sound that breaks the silence only 

makes it more profound, 
Like a crash of deafening thunder in the 

sweet blue stillness drowned ; 
Let thy soul walk softly in thee, as a 

saint in heaven unshod. 
For to be alone with Silence is to be 

alone with God. 



30 . SILENCE, 



XXIV. 

SWells a sound upon the prairie, broadly- 
heaving with the' breeze, 

'Tis the roaring of the silence, like the 
roaring of the seas; 

Breaking out on that vast ocean in a 
seething foam of flowers. 

Splashing up its dripping spray of sunlight 
through the dial-hours. 



SILENCE. 31 



XXV. 



Burn, ye stars like altar-candles, round the 

golden throne of God ; 
Bloom, ye flowers like fragrant footprints, 

where his after-thoughts have trod; 
Steal, oh river like a tear-drop over 

Nature's furrowed cheek, 
For there is no speech — no language, 

where your silence does not speak. 



32 SILENCE. 



XXVI. 



What is history? Half-blown Silence lift- 
ing leaf by leaf its bud, 

Be it read by book or battle, be it 
traced by drops of blood ; 

Providence, the perfect poem of a God 
whose name is Love, 

Set on earth to seeming discord, set to 
music far above. 



SILENCE. 2tZ 



XXVII. 

That which makes the things that are 

not like unto the things that are, 
That which makes the past seem present, 

bringing near the dim — the far; 
Wisps a waif of mellow music from a 

long forgotten harp, 
Weaves a new and gorgeous fashion from 

a faded woof and warp. 
3 



V 



34 SILENCE. 

XXVIII. 

Overlooks a distant battle in the evening 

of the day, 
Calls the roll of earth's dead cities, hears 

them start up from the clay ; 
Strikes a sense of living beauty on the 

scenes that are no more, 
Marks the ocean of oblivion cast its 

shells upon the shore. 



SILENCE. 35 

XXIX. 

Every angel in his chainless freedom 

looks upon a slave, 
Every star that shines in heaven still must 

shine upon a grave ; 
On the drift my feet are sliding, and my 

earthly eyes are dust, 
Up to God a voice I lift, in some such 

words as these — I trust. 



36 SILEXCE. 

XXX. 

Voice of Silence, thou art speaking from 

the Palace of the past, 
On whose old memoric windows faces full 

of life are cast ; 
Where the Kings of thought, enthroned, 

like a star on midnight peak. 
Rule the world with silent spirits, who, 

though being dead — yet speak. 



• SILENCE. yj 

XXXI. 

Voice of Silence, thou art speaking in the 

apanage of art, 
In the mute, electric echoes that through 

air and ocean dart ; 
In the sunlight, falling on us like God's 

shadow passing by, 
At whose touch the dead are looking on 

us with a life-like eye. 



38 SILENCE. 



XXXII. 



Voice of Silence, thou art speaking from 

the stone-sealed lips of sleep, 
That, without a sound or motion, in its 

spell all sound doth keep ; 
In whose swaddling clothes enfolden lie, too 

pure for waking sins, 
Cradled in a mortal creature, Life and 

Death, like sleeping twins. 



SILENCE. 39 

XXXIII. 

Voice of Silence, thou art speaking in the 

ministry of man, 
On the Nebo of remora, prophet to an 

endless plan ; 
And, by silent testimony, and, by influence 

unheard, 
Doth he more for God or devil, than he 

doth by war or word. 



40 SILENCE. 

xxxiv; 

Voice of Silence, thou art speaking on the 

Patmos-isle of earth. 
Where God's reachless revelations rise 

unuttered from their birth ; 
Brightly, like a burning city, flames the 

sunset in the sky, 
Through whose great cathedral-window 

shines the City built on high. 



SILEACE. 41 

XXXV. 

Silence on the pallid face-cloth, Silence 

on the snowy grave, 
Silence on the sleeping city, Silence far 

below the wave : 
Silence, as of music slumbering on her harp 

within the deep, 
Sound is but the dream of Silence, Silence 

talking in its sleep. 



42 SILENCE, 

XXXVI. 

Sound is but the rippling shadow of the 
silence, deep and grand, 

Silent is the force that hideth in the 
sound of wheel and hand ; 

Silent is the power that riots in the tem- 
pest's wanton might ; 

Just behind the floating storm-cloud lies 
the calm eternal light. 



SILENCE. 43 



XXXVII. 

Faintly on the solid silence comes the 

carven bust of Thought, 
Shadow of all earthly sculpture by an 

artist ever wrought ; 
Without sound, and without touching, felt 

to form it stands outlined, 
Solid fact, and fine-grained finish, on the 

marble of the mind. 



44 SILENCE. 

XXXVIII. 

Thus it was tliat as I wandered, often, on 
the yellow beach, 

Day to day was uttering knowledge, night 
to night was showing speech : 

Till the stillness grew oppressive, so that 
when I left the spot. 

On the sounding shore the ocean thun- 
dered ; but I heard it not. 



SILENCE. 45 

XXXIX. 

In the spell of summer evenings, 'ncath 
the light of mellow moons, 

Glide the gondoliers of Venice dimly down 
the blue lagoons : 

O, the songs that melt along those purl- 
ing streets beyond the sea ! 

O, the sweet Italian twilights ! O, the 
land of Italy ! 



46 SILENCE. 



XL. 

Once, my heated soul was looking from 

the window of its hope, 
And before it lay life's landscape with 

the sun upon the slope : 
Far I leaned into the Future, from the 

Old into the New, 
But my breath hath blurred the glass, and 

hid the vision from my view. 



SILENCE. 



XLI. 



47 



Once, my pure white thoughts lay floating 

on my heart, as floats the flake 
Of the christened water-hly starred upon 

the crystal lake : 
But the ice of tears has hardened on that 

crimson-crusted stream, 
On its lilies, crushed and shattered, dead 

within a frozen dream. 



48 SILENCE, 

XLII. 

And to-night, when stars are shivering 

coldly to the darkened slope, 
Still a soul is sadly looking from the 

window of its hope ; 
Longing In its gentle grief to fly away 

and be at rest. 
Like the nightingale complaining to the 

red thorn at its breast. 



SILENCE. 



XLIII. 



49 



Hear a broken voice within thee struggh'ng 
with the perfect will, 

Hush it in the strong submission of thy 
spirit, and be still : 

Stillness, in which thou shalt hear the fall- 
ing of a lifted rod. 

Stillness, in which thou shalt hear the full- 
orbed whisper of a God. 
4 



50 SILENCE. 

XLIV. 

Then it was my heart, affrighted, fled within 

me, like a roe 
When it hears the arrow hurtle from the 

Indian hunter's bow ; 
Till I stood beyond the sunset, heard the 

sounds of trouble cease. 
Felt the stars, God's silent whispers, throb 

through all the purple peace. 



SILENCE. 



XLV. 



Somewhere on this moving planet, in the 

mist of years to be, 
In the silence, in the shadow, waits a 

loving heart for thee ; 
Somewhere in the beckoning heavens, 

where they know as they are known, 
Are the empty arms above thee that shall 

clasp thee for their own. 



52 SILENCE. 



XLVI. 



Somewhere in the far-off silence, I shall 

feel a vanished hand, 
Somewhere I shall know a voice that now 

I cannot understand ; 
Somewhere ! Where art thou, oh spectre 

of illimitable Space ? 
Silent scene without a shadow, silent 

sphere without a place. 



SILENCE. 53 

XLVII. 

Comes there back no sound beyond us 

where the trackless sunbeam calls ? 
Comes there back no wraith of music, 

melting through the crystal walls? 
Comes there back no bird, to lisp us of 

the great forevermore, 
With a leaf of Life, unwithered, plucked 

upon the farther shore ? 



54 SILENCE. 



XLVIII. 



Why arc they so strangely silent, are they 

more or are they less ? 
Are their spirits lost forever in the vault 

of nothingness ? 
Why yon gates of pearl so fastened ? 

why yon stirless dead so dumb ? 
What has o'er those silent travelers in 

the march of Ages come ? 



SILENCE. 55 



XLIX. 

Break, O, break this bitter silence ! speak 

unto me once again ! 
Tell nne, shall I e'er behold thee? tell 

me, do I wait in vain ? 
O, my mother! O, my mother! Ship 

beneaped on foreign shore, 
Answerless the air around me, answerless 

forevermore. 



56 SILENCE. 



Tell me, O yon wind, that plashes where 

the wild bird hath not flown, 
On what strand beyond the sunset shall 

the Soul's white sail be blown ? 
Brightly on the purple upland stream 

the banners of the sun, 
But the light of Nature fadeth, and 

another day is done. 



SILENCE. 57 

LI. 

I remember, as the shadows darken coldly 

to the past, 
One, whose beauty could but linger, one, 

whose beauty could not last ; 
All the large orb of her spirit, glowing 

in its central sky. 
Slowly faded into sunset, through the 

twilight of her eye. 



58 SILENCE. 



LII. 



Fashioned like a form in marble shone 

the lily of her face, 
Like a chapter from the Bible, it was 

read in every place ; 
Fixed in deep and serious sweetness, 

passionate with self-control, 
So she swept, a sweet enchantress, through 

the portal of my soul. 



SILENCE. 59 

LIII. 

Every word she spake was fitted like a 

gesture to her hand, 
Every look at her was like a visit to a 

foreign land ; 
She was fair, and still I count her as the 

mould of all her race ; 
She was fair, and still I hold it least, 

I looked her in the face. 



6o SILENCE. 



LIV. 

Swiftly then I clasped her spirit closely 

in my larger thought, 
She to all my life was likened she to all 

my love was wrought ; 
Soon for me that sweet face vanished, soon 

I saw that form depart, 
But her love becomes an angel in the 

heaven of my heart. 



SILENCE. 6i 



LV. 



Oft there rises one before me with a calm 

and constant eye, 
And she lifts her warning finger, points 

my darkened path on high ; 
O, invisible atonement! stretching o'er 

the gulfs of space. 
Spirit witnessing to Spirit, what to this 

were voice — were face ! 



62 SILENCE. 



LVI. 



Now, by that unchanging river and by 

that untelling sun, 
Where we used to walk together often 

when the day was done, 
Still the woodbine and the willow love in 

sisterhood to grow, 
But we parted, where their shadows wed 

our spirits long ago. 



SILENCE. 63 

LVII. 

Waft her white soul up to heaven for a 

truce to sin and time, 
Waft her, winds, beyond the mountain, 

where the white cloud loves to climb ; 
Sweeps the soul with wing unbroken, bolted 

past, and massive wall. 
Not until the door was shut, that Christ 

stood in the banquet-hall. 



64 SILENCE. 

LVIII. 

I shall slumber, but it recks not where my 

lonely grave be made, 
Whether you and I together in a kindred 

ground are laid : 
I shall slumber, but it recks not who 

shall touch me in the gloom, 
Twins, that sleep within the cradle, are not 

twins within the tomb. 



SILENCE. 6s 



LIX. 



Soon this heart shall stop its beating, but 

its reddened dust shall rise; 
I shall live in other faces, I shall look in 

other eyes : 
Toss the winecup to the wassail, riot in 

the winds that rave, 
There is rest within the cradle, there is 

none within the grave. 



66 SILENCE. 



LX. 



Wings are growing on the restless eagle 
ot the migrant soul, 

Soon its strong, imprisoned pinions shall 
bound up to God — its goal : 

Without wing-beat, without motion, pois- 
ing in the clear " I Am," 

Poising in the shadowy eyry of God's 
high colossal calm. 



SILENCE. 67 

LXI. 

Thus it happened, as I wandered often on 

the whitened cliff, 
While the moon hung o'er the mountain, 

moored there like a crescent-skiff. 
That my memory shone within me o er 

the Ocean of the years, 
And I saw through all my lifetime refluent 

waves of smiles and tears. 



68 SILENCE. 

LXII. 

Like a breath upon a bugle, when its silver 

echo thrills 
All among the answering mountains, all 

about the whispering hills; 
Like a bird within a forest, when it tweaks 

a little song. 
Till the whole deep wood is haunted with 
' the music of a throng. 



SILENCE, 69 



LXIII, 



All things yet shall work together, and 

so working orb in one, 
As the sun draws back its sunbeams, when 

the dial-day is done: 
All things yet shall gather roundly, and 

unite, and shape, and climb. 
Into Truth's great golden unit, in the ripe 

result of time. 



70 SILENCE. 

LXIV. 

Wisdom ripens unto silence as she grows 

more truly wise, 
And she wears a mellow sadness, in her 

heart, and in her eyes : 
Wisdom ripens unto silence, and the lesson 

she doth teach, 
Is that life is more than language, and that 

thought is more than speech. 



SILENCE. 71 



LXV. 



What to me the proud traditions of a 
philosophic age, 

If they dwarf the growth of progress sneer- 
ing at a recent page? 

What to me the reverent teachings that I 
heard of in my youth, 

If they close the last inquiry of my spirit, 
** What is Truth ? " 



SILENCE. 



LXVI. 



What is Truth? Thy jewelled finger points 

like light, with swerveless trend, 
From the Orient of knowledge to the path 

that hath no end : 
What is Truth ? Religion ponders, science 

bends her listening ears ; 
Through the fallow of the Future, break the 

seeds of silent years. 



SILENCE. 73 

LXVIT. 

I was brought up at the altar of a mother's 

bended knee, 
I was sprinkled with the baptism of her 

tears that fell on me; 
I was born a sleeping orphan In a living 

mother's arms, 
Never life wove faster colors, never love 

wove closer charms. 



74 SILENCE. 



LXVIII. 



Some one told Christ that his father and 

his mother stood outside, 
Turned he him to those that quickly brought 

the message and replied ; 
Say to them, Who is my mother? And 

upon his way he trod. 
Not of blood or bone begotten, I was born 

the child of God. 



SILENCE. 75 



LXIX. 



Who am I that I should truckle, puppet 

to a low intent? 
On God's errand I enlisted, by God's spirit 

I was sent : 
Unseen hands of ordination upon all my 

life were laid. 
What to this is man's commission? In 

God's imacre men are made. 



76 SILENCE. 



LXX. 



Faith is but an idle canvas, flapping on 

an idle mast, 
If it be not found within thee as the work 

of life at last : 
Dotaged faith is but a fancy, he who waits 

that dream is lost, 
And his creed is but a millstone, and his 



God is but a ghost. 



SILENCE. jy 

LXXI. 

Very like the soul is sleeping soundly 
underneath the sod, 

Very like the soul is walking softly over- 
head with God ; 

Likelihood alone is certain. Who shall 
speak while God is dumb ? 

Credent doubt is but the shadow of the 
larger faith to come. 



78 SILENCE. 

LXXII. 

Go to Silence. Win her secret, she shall 

teach thee how to speak 
Shape to which all else is shadow grows 

within thee clear, and bleak; 
Go to Silence. She shall teach thee ; ripe 

fruit hangs within thy reach, 
He alone hath clearly spoken, who hath 

learned this. Thought is Speech. 



SILENCE. 79 

LXXIII. 

O thou strong and sacred silence, self- 
contained in self-control, 

O thou palliating silence, Sabbath art 
thou of the soul : 

Lie like snow upon my virtues, lie like 
dust upon my faults, 

Silent when the world dethrones me, silent 
when the world exalts. 



8o SILENCE. 



LXXIV. 

Tamper not with idle rumor, lest the truth 

appear to lie, 
Carve thy life to hilted silence, wrong 

shall fall on it, and die : 
Tamper not with accusation, harvest not 

what thou hast heard, 
Christ stood in the court of Pilate, but he 

answered not a word. 



SILENCE. 8i 

LXXV. 

Know thou this that there is nothing in 

the sounding lists of strife, 
That so fortifies thy manhood as the 

argument of life : 
*' Listen not to old wives' fables," draw 

thyself from such apart, 
Keep the thought of life, like Mary, virgin 

to a virgin's heart. 

6 



82 SILENCE. 



LXXVI. 

Prattle is the children's portion, gossip is 

the prate of fools, 
Talk is but a blundering error, truth shall 

work with sharper tools : 
Shallow sentiments that bubble, bubble on 

the froth of thought. 
Clearer crystals of conception by the 

undercurrent wrought. 



SILENCE. 83 

LXXVII. 

Louder than the blast of bugle, louder 

than the beat of drum, 
Sounds the clarion of conscience to a 

spirit overcome : 
Louder than the crashing boulder down 

its precipice doth roll, 
Slides the avalanche of sorrow, through 

the winter of the soul. 



SILENCE. 



LXXVIII. 



I have seen an eagle standing in the full- 
orbed sun at noon, 

I have seen a bird drift darkly up across 
the midnight moon ; 

I have seen a spirit passing over in the 
deepening eye, 

Too far off to hear its music, like the bird 
within the sky. 



SILENCE. 85 

LXXIX. 

What shall sorrow say to sorrow like to 

tears that fall unsaid ? 
For as life is to the living, so is death unto 

the dead : 
Sympathy shall sit before thee seven days 

mutely on the ground, 
Sorrow is a voice too tender to be drowned 

by ruder sound. 



86 SILENCE, 

LXXX. 

It Is well for us to suffer, it is well for us 

to wait, 
Well to swing like little children all our life 

on death's loose gate; 
Well to feel a mortal sickness wean the soul 

from earthly spell, 
Well to hear when all is over that sweet 

whisper, '* All is well." 



SILENCE. 87 



LXXXI. 



God hath set all things in being sliding out 
of sound and sight, 

Dropping down to mighty death dust in the 
marble Urn of night ; 

Blessed sacrament of Silence, holy shadow- 
sphere of rest. 

On thy scroll forever fading like a smoulder- 
ing palimpsest. 



SILENCE. 



LXXXII. 



Deepening in thy sad sweet stillness 

round the burning deeds of wrong, 
Hushing back the clamoring judgments 

of a vast unreckoned throng ; 
Soothing o'er the cry of sorrow, drying up 

the blood of pain. 
With thy finger on the lip of cares, that 

now no more complain. 



SILENCE. 89 

LXXXIII. 

Still across the Eden woodlands slide the 

birds in summer flock, 
Pawing horse, and tawny panther, cataract, 

and thunder-shock : 
Still the blow that Cain struck Abel falleth 

through the quivering air. 
On the head of every creature, echoing. 

Death — Death — everywhere. 



90 SILENCE. 



LXXXIV, 

Buried cities, stranded navies, crashing 

battles, ravening storms, 
Echo in the thirsty ether, and with sounds 

the still air swarms : 
On its burial field of centuries quiet like 

the night doth fall. 
Silence ! Keep thy vigilled bivouac, with 

the sweet stars over all. 



SILENCE. 91 

LXXXV. 

Silence is the voice of Spirit, silence is the 

voice of God, 
Since he said ; ''go, preach my gospel " he 

hath never spoken word : 
Many a power since then hath perished, 

many a charm hath lost its spell, 
But that ever silent Spirit still on earth is 

ruling well. 



92 SILENCE, 

LXXXVL 

"■ There was silence up in heaven for the 

space of half an hour," 
And the angel held his harp-string standing 

in the jasper door: 
And the lights blew out in darkness, 

strangely, sadly, one by one, 
And the sun stood still on Gibeon, and 

the moon on Ajalon. 



SILENCE. 93 



LXXXVII. 



" It is finished ! " '' Father, hear me ! " 

"• Why hast Thou forsaken me ? " 
But around him Silence gathered, silently, 

how silently : 
** If it were not so I would have told you," 

sounds upon my ear, 
Splendid silence, thou hast told me more 

than souls in heaven may hear. 



94 SILENCE, 



LXXXVIII. 



Subtle secret without solving since the 
years were in their youth, 

Staring like the Sphinx forever from the 
trackless sands of truth: 

Bright Apocalypse of vision dark Apoc- 
rypha of cloud. 

Silence something more than stillness 
thinking to itself aloud. 



SILENCE. 95 



LXXXIX. 

Still I wandered for the last time on the 

sliding beach, apart, 
Solacing the widening lesion of an unre- 

turning heart : 
Saw the creamy sail dip brightly far behind 

the silver wave. 
Saw the moon drop down the heaven to 

its coral-coffined q-rave. 



SILENCE. 



xc. 



Dips the white sail of my spirit down the 

trending sea of death, 
Silent sea without a ripple, save the ripple 

of a breath : 
Moving out for pass or shipwreck, without 

signal, gun, or light. 
To the phantom-pilot rounding on the 

misty Reef of night. 



SILENCE, 97 



XCI. 



Still my faith will take the hand of him 

whose form I cannot trace, 
As I take your hand in darkness though 

I cannot see your face : 
Sit down by the side of God in heaven 

with rapture deep and wild, 
As I sat down by my mother when I was 

a little child. 



98 SILENCE. 

XCII. 

Softly like a meteor falling drops the tear 

that Jesus wept, 
On the human tear beneath it, in the heart 

that Christ hath kept : 
Creature in Creator meeting, crystallizing 

into one, 
As stalactite meets stalagmite, standing 

pillared where they run. 



SILENCE. 99 

XCIII. 

Steals a rich and dreamy sombre on the 

landscape, overworn, 
Comes a crimson on the aster, comes a 

purple on the thorn ; 
Shadows, lost like orphan-children, scattered 

lie on lake and lea. 
Many a wan and weary spirit longs for 

silence, and for thee. 



SILENCE. 



XCIV. 



On the doorstep of my dwelling leaves 

are falling like a prayer, 
Little tracts from heaven, left there by the 

angel of the air : 
Read the leaf and learn the lesson, silent 

Voice to you and me, 
Like the leaf I too shall wither, with the 

leaf I soon shall be. 



SILENCE, loi 



XCV. 



Fall around me feathery silence, fall around 

me as I faint, 
Heaven's casement-curtains closing softly 

round the dying saint : 
Shades of faintness coming o'er me, as 

Death's iron gates unroll, 
With the famine in my face, but with the 

harvest in my soul. 



I02 SILENCE. 



XCVI. 

Turn me on my fevered pillow, for the 

night is turning too, 
I will bolster up my courage, I will see 

what death can do : 
Death whose spectre stalks so coldly, what 

is death? (we do thee wrong) 
But life stopping in its singing, to take 

breath for endless song. 



SILENCE, 103 

XCVII. 

Do not cry. I am not going. I will never, 

never change, 
I will try, but if I cannot speak, you must 

not think it strange ; 
Don't you think God's everlasting arms 

are put round you and me? 
And I know somewhere between them, 

that the Gate of heaven will be. 



I04 SILENCE. 

XCVIII. 

At the center of Creation lies a spot of 

ceaseless rest, 
Where the silent spirit broodeth like a 

dove upon its nest : 
Round it runs the deep horizon in its golden 

quiet curled, 
Round it at the wheel of Motion spins the 

fashion of the world. 



SILENCE. 105 

XCIX. 

Noiselessly thy gates swing open for their 

bars are made of light, 
Swinging on the raven darkness from the 

outer-wall of night ; 
Crystal city of the Silent, built beyond 

the sounds of sin, 
Lift afar your swarming gateways let, the 

silent myriads in. 



io6 SILENCE. 

c. 

Ever after mortal effort, ever after mortal 
pains, 

Something to which light is shadow, some- 
thing unexpressed remains : 

Ever after human question, ever after 
human quest, 

Something farther than the farthest, some- 
thing better than the Best. 



SILENCE. 107 



CI. 

God shall keep the growing secret of the 

silence in his heart, 
Through the crescent years of Knowledge, 

through the golden days of Art : 
Silent heart whose birthless beatings throb 

so softly in their place. 
That God cannot hear himself, in all the 
continent of Space. 






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